Federal law making it 'nearly impossible' for states to verify voter citizenship, Texas AG says
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wants the federal government to share the citizenship status of registered voters whom the state cannot verify eligibility to vote.
In a Wednesday letter addressed to Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson, Paxton wrote the "federal government continues to be the most significant challenge we face in securing Texas elections," pointing to the immigration policies of the Biden administration as well as federal law which Paxton said, "has made it nearly impossible for states to verify the citizenship of voter-registration applicants."
"Although it is a crime for a non-citizen to register to vote, federal law restricts states from requiring proof of citizenship, and state agencies like those we lead have limited means to verify voter citizenship in many cases," he added. "But those same laws place obligations on the federal government to help us identify potential non-citizen voters."
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Citing the legal authority of the Office of the Secretary of State to "demand the federal government do its job in helping states maintain the integrity of their voter rolls," Paxton offered Nelson a form letter which Nelson can then use to trigger statutory law which would require Washington to help verify the citizenship of "a relatively small percentage of currently registered voters that registered to vote through means by which citizenship cannot be confirmed."
In response to Paxton's letter, Nelson on Wednesday wrote a letter to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Ur Jaddou to provide Texas with citizenship data.
Nelson cited the Texas election code, which makes it a felony to lie about citizenship when registering to vote, along with federal law entitling state governments to receive citizenship status information.
"To that end, the State of Texas wishes to obtain current citizenship or immigration status information from USCI for certain individuals who are registered to vote in Texas but have not yet validated their citizenship [through the state]," the Secretary wrote.
The concern over voter rolls comes just weeks after Texas election officials floated the idea of more counties joining a recently upgraded voter registration management system offered by the state rather than a private vendor.
Christina Adkins, the elections division director for the Texas Secretary of State's office, said during a state House Elections Committee hearing in August that while 33 counties currently use a state-approved vendor to manage their voter roll data, having all 254 Texas counties join would ensure the voter rolls are accurate and updated.
Paxton is pursuing legal action against Bexar County, which includes San Antonio and surrounding areas, over a program that he says unlawfully mailed thousands of voter registration applications to unverified residents.
Texas currently uses a number of different databases to manage voter rolls, with some — but not all — local jurisdictions connected to a central database under state efforts to comply with the Help America Vote Act.
Passed by Congress in 2002 following the so-called "hanging chad" debacle in Florida in the 2000 presidential election, Help America Vote set new mandatory minimum standards for states to follow in several areas of election administration while providing funding to help states meet these new standards using various approaches.
In February, a conservative think tank claimed a survey conducted in partnership with Rasmussen Reports found that over a quarter of Americans engaged in ballot fraud during the 2020 presidential election, drawing questions about the study's methodology.
The Heartland Institute report claimed to show widespread absentee ballot fraud in the 2020 election likely caused Republican incumbent Donald Trump to lose the presidential race. The report comes as Trump and some supporters have repeatedly claimed election fraud cost him the election in the last three years.
Critics of the study argue that the researchers had a broad definition of ballot fraud that includes activities that are legal in some states, such as helping a friend or family member fill out an absentee ballot.
The researchers found that 21% of mail-in voters in 2020 admitted that they voted in a state where they are "no longer a permanent resident," while 21% said they filled out "a ballot for a friend or family member." Seventeen percent said they signed a ballot for a friend or family member "with or without his or her permission," while 19% said a friend or family member filled out at least some part of their ballot.
